Editor’s pick&colon; Robot challenge to free-market faith

From
Tony Castaldo

Alan Chattaway writes that in a free-enterprise economy, the money passengers save by using driverless taxis will be spent on “other services” that will create employment for former drivers (Letters, 4 July). That is free-market faith – not logic.

At present, passengers do without those other services, whatever they are. They may choose in future to save that money, or to invest it in robotics companies, or to buy cheap products made by other robots, rather than purchasing a service they have so far been able to do without.

What happens when the taxi passengers’ jobs are also replaced by robots, and when 80 per cent of our jobs are done by robots? At the moment, the lowest-paid jobs are done by those unable to find higher paid work. Any alternative work they might do or other services that may come into being will also likely be better and more cheaply done by robots.

There is one function that is unlikely to be performed by robots, of course&colon; to revolt, peacefully or otherwise, to take a fair share of the robotic productivity. People aren’t going to starve just because the free market has found them to be economically worthless.San Antonio, Texas, US